Twenty-one people were confirmed dead and 14 injured after a bus plunged into a river in southwest China's mountainous Guizhou Province on Tuesday, the local safety watchdog said.

 

Search and rescue work ended on Wednesday morning, after two more bodies were recovered from the Chishui River, on the border of Guizhou and Sichuan Provinces, said sources with the Guizhou provincial administration for workplace safety.

 

The 14 injured were being treated at the People's Hospital in Guizhou's Renhuai City, the officials said.

 

The accident occurred at around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, when the China-made King Long bus en route from Chishui to Zunyi veered off the provincial highway and down a 50-meter cliff into the river.

 

Survivors recalled the bus was running very fast before the plunge.

 

The bus company's logbook said 33 people boarded the bus upon its departure from Chishui. Yet it was unclear how many got on and off on the way.

 

It is not immediately known if the tragedy was weather-related. Guizhou has been one of the provinces worst hit by snow and sleet that began in mid-January. Many roads have been closed and power lines destroyed.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2008)